Update for Halloween Weekend

(I'm making an effort to post some updates for the past couple of months I've missed. This is the first of three dating back to early Oct. I will try to post some more recent stuff and pictures from November later this week. Sorry for the delay.)

I wasn't originally planning on getting dressed up for Halloween, nor were most obrunis that I spoke with, but some of our friends in another hostel were throwing a costume party so we figured we would join in. In Ghana, Halloween is largely just ignored which of course makes costume shopping a little difficult. My friend Kristin and I ended up going with a good standby when costumes are in short supply - togas. We tracked down a couple of white sheets and went as Greek king and queen. Our group of 8 or so dressed up obrunis were met by incredulous looks from the Ghanaian as we made our way from our hostel to Legon hall on the other side of campus. The party basically amounted to a bunch of dressed up obrunis mingling with Ghanaian students who all thought we had lost our minds. It was an awesome opportunity to exchange some "culture" from back home.

On Saturday I played in a soccer match that pitted the international students against Liberian refugees who were bused in from a local refugee camp. The first half of the game was played primarily by the obruni international students from Europe and the States while the second half was mostly the Nigerian students against the Liberians. The obrunis took the first half, 1-0, while the Nigerians got stomped on, something like 2-5. I guess the Liberian refugee game is one that the International Student Association likes to put together every year, definitely a fun time.

So I think I need to preface this next piece by saying that Sunday, November 2nd could quite go down as one of the coolest days of my African adventure. Just before my soccer match on Saturday I was approached by a Ghanaian named Cobby who asked me for a favor. I hesitantly spoke with him for a bit, thinking in the back of my mind that this must be a scam. Cobby told me how he needed a white man to play a part in a music video that he was shooting for a band that he managed. He talked me into it and on Sunday I met up with Cobby and traveled to a village outside of Accra to shoot the scene. I won't go into too much detail about the scene because I should have a copy of the video soon so that I can show everybody. I'm pretty sure that the whole thing is going to look pretty ridiculous and in fact a number of people at the shoot told me that most Ghanaians will get a good laugh when they see my part (I'm sure plenty of Americans will too).

Anyways that's how I became a Ghanaian music video star. I'll definitely post the video on YouTube as soon as I get a copy. Last Tuesday a huge group of us American students loaded up into buses and headed to a hotel in town for the elections. The exchange program from NYU had organized a big election event on the back lawn of the hotel with a projector and screen. Obama was announced the winner just as the sun broke the horizon and with everybody breaking out in dance to the popular Ghanaian highlife song called "The Barack Obama song".

One other piece of news that all of you may find interesting... I shaved my head last night! Yup, I'm completely bald. Not sure what got into me. I guess I figured that I should shave my head at least once in my life and right now is probably as good a time as any. That's all I've got for you now, I'll try to keep this thing updated more regularly.